Calls mount for NSA transparency

Administration officials took a baby step Wednesday to declassify documents related to the collection of phone records, but their effort was immediately overshadowed by new revelations about online data collection and bubbling hostility from lawmakers.

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A report from The Guardian described a tool that lets NSA analysts monitor specific actions on the Internet. Intelligence leaders faced a barrage of angry Senate Judiciary Committee members. And NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander got heckled at a security conference in Las Vegas as he defended his agency’s activities.

The swirling revelations and debate underscored challenges for the administration as it begins to crack the door open on the NSA programs. The White House even invited key lawmakers, including skeptics such as Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), to a meeting Thursday with President Obama.

“Our goal is to get out as much information as we can to provide transparency on this,” James Cole, U.S. deputy attorney general, told the Senate Judiciary Committee just minutes after the release of documents about the phone-record collection program.

That didn’t prove enough for some lawmakers.

“Did you just think of [declassifying the documents] yesterday?” said Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.). “You knew for weeks this hearing was coming and you released the documents just a few minute before the hearing began … that doesn’t engender trust.”

The documents reveal the terms under which the government may search phone records. This includes a “reasonable, articulable suspicion” that the numbers are associated with terrorist groups and limits on who can access the data. The information echoes details provided by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.

And the government’s disclosure doesn’t touch on the PRISM Internet surveillance program. The Justice Department just requested its third extension to respond to petitions filed by Microsoft and Google asking the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for permission to release detailed data on the national security requests they receive.

Twitter joined the campaign Wednesday, insisting in its semi-annual transparency report that the company should “be able to publish the number of national security requests — including FISA disclosures — separately from non-secret requests.”

Just as the Senate hearing got under way, the Guardian report provided a fresh headache. It detailed a new NSA tool known as XKeyscore that allows analysts to search vast databases of information without prior authorization.

“This is a recurring problem and we really need to be balancing much more carefully the value of declassification over classification,” Whitehouse said.

Bills in both chambers have sprouted up to reform surveillance programs and the court that authorizes government requests. At the Senate hearing, Franken and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) announced plans to drop separate bills Thursday focused on tackling privacy concerns and altering court procedure.

The government’s document release did little to appease privacy rights groups either, who continue to call for the program’s demise.

“It is time to close down this disturbing process that clearly puts privacy and civil liberties on the back burner,” Center for Democracy and Technology President Leslie Harris said. The American Civil Liberties Union demanded congressional intervention.

Cole emphasized the challenge of balancing privacy rights with national security. “These are all topics we need to debate,” he said, adding that the government may release further information. NSA’s Alexander, at the Las Vegas conference, reinforced how these programs upend terrorist plots in the U.S. and abroad.

Obama’s visit with lawmakers will frame the next step in the administration’s attempt to catch up.